The present invention relates to a ski boot and, more particularly, to an improvement in a ski boot which enables adjustment of the angle of forward inclination of the leg and/or the pressure applied to the leg of the skier from the boot upper when he leans forward by using a band and a fastening member for fastening the upper shell portion corresponding to the ankle.
A typical ski boot in recent years is composed of a shell molded of a rigid plastic material, and an inner boot portion for closely and tightly maintaining the leg within the shell. In order to allow the foot to be stably and yet comfortably retained within the ski boot and thereby to enable the skier to effectively control the ski during skiing, a fastening mechanism is employed to fasten the upper shell portion corresponding to the ankle, or to hold the instep of the foot, thereby allowing the ankle to be reliably and yet flexibly fitted in the boot.
It is a known prior art to provide the fastening mechanism for fastening the upper shell portion with the function which enables adjustment of the angle of forward inclination of the boot in order to maintain the skier in a forwardly leaning position which is ideal for preventing the leg muscles from becoming exhausted, and the function which enables adjustment of the stiffness of the upper shell portion which determines the magnitude of pressure applied to the leg when the skier assumes a forwardly leaning position (the stiffness will be referred to as the "forward inclination pressure", hereinafter). This prior art is disclosed in, for example, the specification of U.S. Pat. No. 4,104,811.
The conventional ski boot fastening mechanism described above is arranged such that a plurality of retaining bores are circumferentially provided in a ski boot on each of the right and left sides of the upper flap thereof, and each of the two portions of a fastening collar is positioned at one of the retaining bores on each side of the upper flap and is secured thereat by a fastening member, and then, the free end portion of the collar which is engaged with a rear support member provided at the upper of the ski boot is tightened by a buckle connected to the fixed end of the color corresponding to the free end portion, thereby applying a predetermined stiffness (forward inclination pressure) to the upper of the ski boot and varying the angle of forward inclination of the boot upper with respect to the plane of the sole.
However, the above-described conventional fastening mechanism suffers from the following problems. Namely, when the collar is positioned and secured to the upper of the ski boot, since the the fastening members which are separate from both the boot upper and the collar are employed, it is complicated to change the retained position of the collar with respect to the retaining bores. In particular, when the angle of forward inclination and the forward inclination pressure are to be adjusted immediately before sliding, the operation of changing the collar retaining position is extremely troublesome and takes a relatively long time. In addition, it may be necessary for a skier who is inexperienced in changing the collar retaining position to remove his foot from the ski boot in order to effect this operation. Further, the conventional fastening mechanism makes it impossible to effect fine adjustment of the forward inclination pressure of the boot upper and the fine adjustment of the angle of forward inclination of the boot upper with respect to the plane of the sole, and it is not possible to adjust the forward inclination pressure and the angle of forward inclination so that they are matched with the leg of each individual skier, unless the collar is replaced. Furthermore, since the fastening membere are separated from the ski boot when it is not used, there is a risk of the fastening members being lost, and it is troublesome to handle and manage the fastening member.